You may have noticed I paint a lot of landscapes with reflections. That’s because of how much fun it is to do, especially when it actually looks like it is a reflection when it’s done :)

My most recent landscape painting I call “Joyful Reflections”.

My goal was to paint a scene that evokes feelings of joyfulness, so I chose warm colors to add to the trees and shrubs, since they are known to cause the viewer to have happy feelings float to the surface. It is also fun to change up colors you’d expect to see in a landscape, and they provide a nice contrast to all of the cooler greens and blues.

For the image being reflected, I wanted to add more detail to help it stand apart from the reflection.

So I added some scribbles and stipplings to give definition to some trees. That was an exciting kind of scary thing to do because I didn’t want to ruin the painting and you can’t undo a micron pen!

But I had no intention of it being perfect. Loose, free and fun is what I was going for! Without that, where is the joy?

Once I had the main picture done with the background detailed and the girl and kayak in place, all the focus was to the right of the painting. I needed something to balance out the left side.

I love Claude Monet’s Water Lily Pond painting. so I thought I’d try to add some lily pads and water flowers to the surface of the water. .

I used gouache and my favorite iridescent sparkly watercolor to help the pads and flowers to stand out from the reflection.

How fun is that? These photos don’t really capture the effect as well as viewing it in person, but the lily pads are quite fun!

Don’t you want to play hopscotch on them to get to the dry land?

The final piece achieves the goal of being joyfully magical!

It has some things I wish I could change, like the purple tree from being in dead center of the painting, but this painting was never about being perfect, it was about having fun, experimenting, and painting some joy.

When we get hung up on perfection, creativity runs right out the door. This paintings very beginnings were born out of a technique that eliminates a lot of control. By using it, you make random leaf-like patterns by pressing crumpled saran wrap into wet watercolor and wait for it to dry. Doing this left behind the neat textured background that I used to shape the trees and bushes.

The saran wrap technique leaves a lot up to chance. It does not create a perfect mirror image from the top half to the bottom. The painting started out perfectly imperfect! I worked from that first layer of playing with textures to come to this final painting.

The imperfections that result are born out of joyful creativity, experimenting, and having fun playing with new techniques.

Sometimes you just need to let go of “just right” to jump into the relaxing, fun flow of the art.

I would love to hear from you! Please comment below, or by email (merri@artsandblessings.com) or for quicker interaction with me as well as with other readers, post your comment on my facebook page! I can’t wait to hear from you!

Mermaid Pond

Look closely! (click to enlarge) The ducks are lined up on the edge of the pond by the dock. They look like they are ready for a swim meet!

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Serenity Pond Original Watercolor Painting

When I saw a picture of a pond like the one above, I loved it, I thought it was so beautiful and I longed to go there.

But it was missing something… no one was there to enjoy it. Not a bird, not a boat and no mermaids—believe it or not! Nothing at all to soak in all the serenity which is calmly waiting to be enjoyed. So in my version of the picture, I added some mallards and sent them off by two’s to have adventures together (the buddy system is still important!).

At the end of our street, there is a place called “Mermaid Pond”. Well, at least that is what we call it. Many years ago, our neighbors created the pond at the bottom of the hill in their yard. It is a pretty good size pond—big enough to act as a neighborhood ice skating rink. They also added ducks and geese to the pond, so it is a lot of fun to sit on the small bench and watch them play. Sometimes there is a spash with no obvious explanation so clearly, it is caused by mermaids being almost caught as they ducked back down under the waters surface!

There is a stretch of a wooded swampy area off to the right of the pond, and it is filled to capacity (or so it sounds) with bullfrogs, tree frogs and toads, and various other amphibious creatures. And ticks (and mosquitos), so I’ve never personally explored that mysterious and mucky area.

Walking on the side of the road by that stretch, with all those woodsy sounds and the occasional splash and quack, makes it seem like we’re entering a secret getaway spot.

The sounds of nature can transport you to another place, if you let it. They can take you away to savor the serenity, to soak in the creation, to observe the reflections in the pond, to watch the trees eagerly wave with the wind, and to capture each moment we have, each one a gift to marinate in the joys of Gods imagination and creativity!

Each minute can be celebrated because that minute is once-in-a-lifetime event! Each one is for us to have and enjoy to the fullest as it comes.

So why not take the time to use our gift of imagination to dream and ponder a peaceful, serene world where the mermaids joyfully splash just out of sight? Where trees conduct the chorus of the melodic voices belonging to frogs and ducks, geese and toads?

I wonder what the lyrics to their song would be?

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I would love to hear from you! Please comment below, or by email (merri@artsandblessings.com) or for quicker interaction with me as well as with other readers, post your comment on my facebook page! I can’t wait to hear from you!